Gov Consultation: A New Child Protection Authority for England
The UK Government is currently consulting on plans to establish a new central body for safeguarding children for England. A move that could mark one of the most significant shifts in the country’s safeguarding landscape in years.
The proposal is rooted in a long-running concern that, while many organisations play a role in protecting children, no single body currently holds clear, national oversight of how safeguarding systems function as a whole.
Responsibilities are spread across local authorities, police forces, regulators and government departments, often working well in isolation but struggling to spot patterns, share intelligence, or intervene early when risks emerge across sectors.
This issue was laid bare by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which concluded that repeated safeguarding failures were not the result of isolated mistakes, but of systemic weaknesses. In its final report, IICSA recommended the creation of a new, independent Child Protection Authority to provide national leadership, oversight and accountability — ensuring that warning signs are acted on before harm occurs.
What Is the Government Proposing?
At the centre of the consultation is the proposal to establish a new Child Protection Authority as a national safeguarding body for England, operating alongside — rather than replacing — existing organisations involved in child protection.
According to the consultation documents published by the Department for Education, the Authority would be designed to address gaps that can emerge when safeguarding responsibility is shared across multiple agencies. The focus is not on taking over frontline child protection work, but on strengthening how the overall system functions.
In outline, the proposed Child Protection Authority would:
Provide national oversight of how safeguarding arrangements operate across sectors
Identify patterns of risk and systemic weaknesses that may not be visible at a local level
Support better information-sharing and learning between organisations
Help set clearer expectations and standards around safeguarding practice
Importantly, the government has been clear that the Authority would not replace local authorities, the police, or existing regulators such as Ofsted or the Care Quality Commission. Instead, it would sit above the system, with a remit to challenge, coordinate and improve safeguarding arrangements where children are involved. While specific powers are still being consulted on, the emphasis is on creating a body that can spot emerging risks earlier and ensure lessons are learned consistently, rather than after serious harm has already occurred.
Where the Idea Came From
The proposal for a Child Protection Authority stems directly from the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
One of IICSA’s clearest conclusions was that safeguarding failures were rarely the result of a lack of guidance or individual wrongdoing alone. Instead, the inquiry found that responsibility was fragmented, with no single body able to oversee how safeguarding systems operated nationally or to intervene when risks cut across multiple organisations.
Information was not consistently shared, patterns of risk went unnoticed, and lessons from serious cases were often learned too late. To address this, the inquiry recommended the creation of independent Child Protection Authorities for England and Wales. They proposed that these bodies should be designed to provide national oversight, identify systemic weaknesses, and hold institutions to account where safeguarding arrangements were failing.
While the government initially sought to strengthen existing structures, the underlying issue identified by IICSA — the absence of clear national ownership of safeguarding outcomes — has remained unresolved. The current consultation represents a renewed attempt to address that gap directly, rather than relying on incremental improvements to an already complex system.
How the Child Protection Authority Would Work in Practice
While the consultation does not set out a final operating model, it does provide a clear indication of how a Child Protection Authority would function in practice — and, just as importantly, what it would and would not do.
The proposed Authority would not take on frontline child protection responsibilities. Instead, its role would sit above individual organisations and agencies, focusing on how safeguarding systems work as a whole. This includes identifying where arrangements are inconsistent, where risks are emerging across sectors, and where existing oversight mechanisms are failing to prevent harm.
Under the proposals, the Authority could be given powers to:
Access information from relevant organisations where there are concerns about safeguarding effectiveness
Analyse data and trends to identify patterns of risk that may not be visible at a local level
Issue findings, recommendations or guidance aimed at improving safeguarding practice
Escalate systemic concerns to government or regulators where action is required
The consultation makes clear that the Authority is intended to complement existing regulators, not replace them. Its focus would be on risks and failures that cut across sectors, rather than compliance within a single organisation.
A recurring theme is independence. The proposed governance arrangements are designed to allow the Authority to challenge institutions — including government — where safeguarding systems are not working as they should.
For organisations working with children, this points towards a safeguarding environment where system-level effectiveness matters as much as individual compliance, with greater emphasis on prevention, learning and accountability.
Children’s charities and safeguarding bodies have largely welcomed the consultation, particularly where it acknowledges long-standing concerns about fragmented accountability. In its response to the government’s announcement, Barnardo’s described the proposal as an important step towards addressing systemic safeguarding weaknesses identified by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
Commenting on the plans, Barnardo’s said:
“We welcome the government’s commitment to establishing a Child Protection Authority to strengthen oversight and accountability across the safeguarding system.”
(Source: Barnardo’s response to the proposed Child Protection Authority – barnardos.org.uk)
At the same time, sector bodies have been clear that questions remain. These include how independent the Authority would be in practice, how it would avoid duplicating the work of existing regulators, and whether it would have sufficient authority to drive meaningful change rather than simply issuing recommendations.
The consultation does not represent a finished policy, but it does offer a clear indication of the direction of travel in safeguarding reform. Whether the Child Protection Authority is ultimately established — and in what form — will depend on the outcome of the consultation.
What is already clear, however, is that expectations around safeguarding are continuing to rise. The consultation is open to the public and you can submit a response either as an individual or on behalf of an organisation. You can find it here.